HIGH
Court judge Justice Ben Hlatshwayo yesterday threw out an urgentapplication
by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) seeking the courtto bar police
from preventing a meeting that the organisation wanted to holdin Masvingo
last night.

Hlatshwayo said he could not grant an interim order
compelling police inMasvingo to allow the NCA to hold a public meeting at
Chevron Hotel, pendingthe determination of the urgent application because
doing so would have beentantamount to granting a final order without giving
the police the chance toanswer.

The NCA last week gave the police
notice of its intention to hold a meetingin Masvingo as part of its series
of meetings throughout the country todiscuss various issues including the
need for a new constitution forZimbabwe.

On Tuesday, a Masvingo
senior police officer wrote to the NCA saying the lawenforcement agency was
not going to sanction the meeting because “the timeyou intend to hold your
meeting is not conducive for the public.”

Under the government’s
draconian Public Order and Security Act Zimbabweansmust seek police
permission before holding political gatherings.

The police have have
been accused of using POSA to prevent the oppositionMovement for Democratic
Change party and other government opponents fromholding public meetings with
their supporters.

NCA lawyer Ray Muzenda had told Hlatshwayo in the
court application that thedecision by the police in Masvingo to prevent the
NCA meeting impeded on thecivic body’s freedom of assembly and
association.

The civic alliance’s chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, said
the decision by thecourt yesterday refusing to grant an interim order
against the policeeffectively upheld the police’s ban on the
meeting.

Madhuku said: “This smacks of political decision-making by
the court.

“It’s surprising that the same court which granted the
government an orderlast month to stop the MDC’s “final push” without giving
the MDC a chance torespond, says it could not grant our order because the
police had not beengiven a chance to reply.”

THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party andordinary
Zimbabweans yesterday criticised President Robert Mugabe forskirting the
hardships facing the nation like the shortage of bank notesduring his speech
to Parliament on Tuesday.

They said while Mugabe touched on
some of the issues, he appeared tolack a clear and focused strategy to
resolve the problems which they said heonly referred to in general terms
during his speech to mark the opening ofthe fourth session of the fifth
Parliament.

But Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF applauded his speech
saying it sign-postedthe way to economic recovery and social prosperity for
Zimbabweans.

Janet Maupa, 53, from Murehwa communal lands who
was at Parliament onTuesday, told the Daily News: “I am not sure whether or
not our situationwill at all improve.

“The problems in the
country are too big for one person and I believewith prayer, we will be able
to overcome our problems. I don’t think thePresident is aware that we are
short of almost everything including our ownbank notes. This has never
happened before.”

A bank teller with a Harare commercial bank,
who left his work towitness the opening of Parliament by Mugabe, said he was
disappointed bywhat he said was Mugabe’s failure to acknowledge and take
fullresponsibility for the fast deteriorating economic and social crisis in
thecountry.

MDC Member of Parliament Ben Tumbare-Mutasa
said Mugabe’s speechlacked focus as it dwelt on the
general.

Tumbare-Mutasa, who is legislator for Seke
constituency, said: “Thespeech was not specific. He failed to really explain
the problems andchallenges being faced by the ordinary
people.

“It would have been more relevant if he had addressed
specificeconomic issues such as the acute shortages of cash, the rising
inflation,unemployment and violence because this was a different session. He
shouldhave demonstrated that we are in a precarious situation that needed
honestmen who accept the truth.”

MDC parliamentarians and
the opposition party’s leader MorganTsvangirai abandoned their boycott of
Mugabe and attended his address to theHouse on Tuesday.

Tsvangirai later said the apparent shift of position on Mugabe by hisparty
was meant to create a conducive environment for dialogue betweenZimbabwe’s
two biggest political parties to find a solution to the
deepeningcrisis.

Another MDC legislator, Renson Gasela,
said Mugabe had failed to givedetailed information on how his government was
going to avert starvation inZimbabwe.

Gasela said: “The
nation needs to be assured that next year there willbe enough to eat. The
address was too general to address the food needs
ofZimbabweans.”

The government has appealed for 700 000
tonnes of food frominternational donors after poor rains and chaotic land
reforms combined toslash food production by 50 percent.

But
ZANU PF MP for Makoni North constituency Didymus Mutasa said:“President
Mugabe’s speech marked a turn of attitude on everyone. Thepresence of the
MDC MPs in Parliament means they want to make things workwell.

MASVINGO – The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)yesterday said it will challenge in court the eligibility of a
ZANU PFcandidate, Jacob Chademana, to stand in council elections
here.

Chademana, who is a sitting councillor, was nominated by ZANU
PF tocontest in ward eight but MDC officials yesterday claimed that he was
not aregistered voter in that ward.

MDC chairman for
Masvingo Shaky Matake told the Daily News yesterday:“We have information
that Chademana was not on the voters’ roll and to usone cannot be on the
roll on the nomination day.

“We have since instructed our lawyers
to take the matter to court.”

Presiding officer Ignatius
Mushangwe had to extend deadline fornomination by almost two hours on Monday
this week to allow Chademana tosubmit his papers.

Mushangwe
yesterday said: “It is true that you cannot contest in award that you are
not registered as a voter but you can apply for transferand a special
certificate will be issued to you. These special certificatesare issued to
candidates only and this what happened in this case (Chademana’s case).”
Council elections in Masvingo and other towns are scheduled for30 and 31
August.

BOTH the loving critics and critical lovers of Zimbabwe nowgenerally
acknowledge that the country is in a deep crisis. Whether thecrisis is
engineered (by enemies of Zimbabwe) or is imaginary (as some wouldlike to
believe) is neither here nor there.

The fact of the matter is
that the crisis is not only perceived but isdirectly felt by virtually
everyone and everywhere. Moreover, even if thecrisis were a matter of mere
perceptions and not the reality, people’sperceptions are often more
significant than the reality.

In some situations, perceptions
are incongruent with the reality onthe ground. However, in today’s Zimbabwe,
both the perceptions of a crisisand the reality of it
converge.

In short, the Zimbabwe crisis is much more than a
matter ofimagination; it is no longer an

illusion.

This is not to suggest that the crisis affects
everyone equally. Everycrisis has its gainers and losers. It is the gainers
who are apt to deny thereality of the crisis for the simple and
self-serving, but perfectlyunderstandable, reason that the prolongation of
the crisis translates into aprolongation of their enrichment or advancement
of their interests.

While the crisis has plunged the vast
multitude of Zimbabweans intomisery, it has simultaneously yielded many
benefits to a strategicallypositioned minority. Of utmost significance is
that the gainers orbeneficiaries of the crisis are both state-aligned – i e
in government andthe ruling party and close associates – and in the
opposition.

In this sense, there is a convergence of interest
(strange though itmay be) in the indefinite prolongation of the crisis. Both
the oppositionand the state elite circles are fishing in troubled waters and
harvestinghandsomely.

Given this scenario, any resolution
of the crisis has to contend withthe forces that accrue benefits from it.
The Zimbabwe crisis is thereforemore multi-faceted, multi-layered and
complicated than meets the naked eye.

The vital question
therefore is: who in government, the ruling party,the opposition and,
indeed, in civil society, is benefiting from the crisisand has a stake in
its perpetuation?

These elements will place roadblocks of all
types in their valiantefforts to torpedo the early resolution of the crisis
because it is in theirinterest to do so.

So, at a time when
the generality of Zimbabweans are desperate for aspeedy and sustainable
resolution of the crisis, this cross-cutting elitemay be desperate to
nullify any efforts to

arrive at such a
resolution.

The logic of this is that the brighter and more
hopeful the prospectsfor an amicable solution, the more determined and
forceful these forcesbecome to throw all sorts of spanners into the
works.

The long and short of it is that there are those with a
vestedinterest in the continuation of the crisis and that these elements are
bothinside and outside the government. In a sense, the crisis unites them;
it isa unifying factor.

The fundamental difference is that
one faction of this elite isgoverning and the other is not but seeks to
govern. This is the unhappyparadox of the Zimbabwe crisis. For this elite,
the deeper the crisis, thehigher the yields.

Early in the
last century, Italian social scientists saw societydivided into two major
groups, the elite and the non-elite. The former wasfurther sub-divided into
the governing and the non-governing elite, whilethe non-elite comprises the
masses or the povo, in local parlance.

The gladiation for power
is essentially an elite affair, that is, astruggle between the governing and
the non-governing elite, with thenon-elite being used in a struggle that is
really not theirs and from whichthey seldom directly benefit.

MANY in Zimbabwe will
applaud the decision this week by theopposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) to extend an olive branch tothe government in the hope that the
two opposing sides can finally sit downto end Zimbabwe’s withering political
and economic storm.

The MDC’s tactical move to end its
year-long boycott of parliamentaryaddresses given by President Robert Mugabe
is all the more important becauseof the poisoned climate that exists in
Zimbabwe after the government lastmonth detained MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and his top leadership for noreason other than that they sought
to lead a peaceful anti-governmentprotest.

We sincerely
hope that the MDC’s magnanimity in the face ofpersecution of its members by
the government will be reciprocated by Mugabeand his officials so that, in
the words of the MDC, a conducive atmosphereis created in the country for a
“dignified exit for Mugabe from thepolitical scene”.

Only
foolhardy and irrational Zimbabweans – not to mention theirunmitigated
disloyalty and unpatriotism to the cause of the motherland –still honestly
expect our Old Man and his team to come to grips with acrisis that the
latter created and nurtured in Zimbabwe in the past
twodecades.

The time has long passed for Mugabe and his
administration to acceptthe painful reality that they have done their bit
for Zimbabwe – many wouldsay ruined the country in the process – and that
they have to immediatelygive way to a new beginning.

A new
political leadership at the helm of Zimbabwe and new ideas thatbuild and
bind the nation together are sorely needed to pluck this beautifuland
economically rich land out of the deep economic and political hole whichthe
present leadership has dug it into.

Yet there are obvious
hurdles and dangers that both the MDC and Mugabe’s governing ZANU PF will
have to overcome if meaningful talks to resolveZimbabwe’s crisis are to take
place.

First, hawkish elements from ZANU PF spoiling for a
fight-to-the-deathagainst the MDC and the maintenance of the untenable
status quo will have tobe sidelined if the envisaged talks are to produce
the desired results.

In tandem, hardliners within the MDC
advocating strong-arm tacticsagainst the government will have to keep their
cool and give peace a chance,aware as they should be of the many-sided
intricacies of the crisis and thatZANU PF, even at this eleventh hour, still
holds the upper hand.

Both sides will have to tone down their
poisonous vitriol and takeconcrete steps that form peace-building blocks on
the irreversible one-wayroute to a new and democratic Zimbabwe which,
despite understandablemisgivings, must still define a place and role for a
departing Mugabe.

A truly honest and impartial mediator, who is
trusted by bothbelligerents, will have to be found to bring the two sides to
a negotiatingtable and to read the riot act, if necessary, to those who step
out of linein the hope of benefiting in whatever form from Zimbabwe’s
chaos.

No doubt, many in the MDC will only be too aware that
ZANU PF’shistory shows the ruling party too often as being unwilling to
accommodatethe genuine interests of its rivals, preferring to bludgeon them
intosubmission and then swallowing them to make the peace of the dead.

Chiredzi - Two South African
corporate giants are under fire for allegedlyhandling large consignments of
produce stolen from Zimbabwe's white farmersby supporters of President
Robert Mugabe. The mining group Anglo American, aLondon-listed FTSE 100
company, and the sugar company Tongaat Hulett areboth accused of processing
sugar cane stolen from white farmers who areunder threat of dispossession
under Zimbabwe's chaotic "land reform".Farmers in south-eastern Zimbabwe say
Mr Mugabe's "settlers" are routinelystealing their crop and sending the cane
to mills owned by an Anglo Americansubsidiary, Hippo Valley Estates, and by
Triangle Ltd, owned by TongaatHulett. The farmers claim they have repeatedly
reported the theft to the twocompanies and to the police in Chiredzi, 300
miles south-east of Harare, whothey claim refuse to take action. "We are
victims of the government'smadness over land, and now British and South
African companies areprocessing cane stolen from us," said Peter Henning,
63, a farmer whose landhas been "listed" for nationalisation. In their
defence, the companies sayit is pointless to let the cane just rot, and say
they are bound byZimbabwean law to process the produce.

The crux
of the issue is that when farms are "listed" for governmenttake-over, a
lengthy legal process is triggered before the Zimbabweangovernment can claim
the deeds. The government says just 300 white-ownedfarms out of 6,000 listed
have been processed to finality. But in themeantime, Mr Mugabe's supporters
are helping themselves to the fruit of theland regardless, farmers claim.
None of the 50-odd white-owned, 240-acresugar cane farms adjacent to Hippo
Valley Estates has been legally takenover, but white farmers say they cannot
harvest their crop because theirworkers are kept away by the threat of
physical violence. In its defence,Anglo American says it is an innocent
party caught in the middle of the landtug-of-war, and denied that it was
using the legal tussle for its ownprofitable ends. "We are stuck in the
middle of a very difficult legaldispute," said its external relations
director, Edward Bickham. "We areobliged to accept cane under Zimbabwean
law, because it goes off if youdon't." Anglo American added that it had not
paid for cane if ownership wasdisputed, but had asked the courts to
determine who should receive payment.It also said the sums involved were not
millions of pounds, and that HippoValley had sent letters of support to
farmers trying to have their farmsdelisted for takeover.

Hippo
Valley had provided sanctuary to 10 evicted commercial farmers andtheir
families, and fuel to others, it added - although farmers said theyhad been
charged commercial rates in both cases. "This is a complex matter,and we
will resolve it through the courts," said Anglo American's Zimbabwechairman,
Godfrey Gomwe. Triangle's managing director, Simon Cleasby, whotakes the
same position, said it was against the law to refuse canedelivered by a
"licensed grower". But a barrister in Zimbabwe, Adrian deBourbon, said the
"licensed growers" were the white farmers, not thesettlers, and added that
the law allowed mills to decline to accept cane ifthey had "reasonable
cause". "The disputed ownership of the cane is areasonable cause," he said.
Eric Le Vieux, 38, another farmer involved, saidthe two companies had been
sent letters from lawyers insisting that trade inthe stolen cane stop. "They
have said we can see them in court," Mr Le Vieuxsaid. "The system has
brought chaos to Zimbabwe." Crops and livestock havebeen stolen from
hundreds of former white farmers violently evicted fromtheir homes in the
last three years. But according to the pressure groupJustice for
Agriculture, the sugar cane saga is the first in whichcorporates are accused
of handling stolen produce. Its spokesman, JohnWorsley-Worswick, said:
"Farmers and their workers in the Chiredzi area havebeen beaten, arrested,
lost their homes and livelihoods and their futureprospects."

The government's July 18th injection of Z$12bn
(US$14.6m) into Zimbabwe'sfinancial system - and the announcement that a
Z$1,000 banknote is to beprinted for the first time - is likely to create as
many problems as itsolves. There is no doubt that the shortage of banknotes
is creatingincreasing difficulties for Zimbabweans. Banks are unable to
supply notes totheir customers; ATMs work only in the city centres; and
there are longqueues at the banks and building societies as people wait for
cash to bedeposited by other customers before they can withdraw money.
However, withinflation already running at 365%, the move will have little
impact on cashavailability. It is also likely to exacerbate inflation, which
has risenfrom 199% at the end of 2002. Huge food - and fuel - price
increases areimminent. As it is, it is virtually impossible to buy petrol or
diesel atfilling stations at the office price of Z$440 (5.3 US cents) a
litre. Withthe exception of commuter bus operators, which are allowed to buy
diesel atthe official price when it is available, people are either paying
ablack-market price in Zimbabwe dollars or using foreign currency to pay
animporter. The government has agreed in principle to allow the
oilmultinationals to import fuel and sell it at market prices, but the
schemehas still be finalised. When it is, petrol prices will treble,
withfar-reaching knock- on effects for the rate of price
rises.

At the same time, huge increases in the price of maizemeal,
the food staple,and wheat are imminent. In the black market, the price of
bread has morethan doubled in the past month, while coal prices have also
doubled. All ofwhich suggests that inflation will be well above 400% by
August, or possiblyeven the end of this month. Economists are divided over
how long it willtake the rate of price increases to reach four- digits, but
even theoptimists expect inflation to reach 700-750% by year- end.
Devaluation isalso very much on the agenda - despite official denials.
Towards the end ofJuly business and government will meet to discuss further
devaluation fromthe current rate of Z$824:US$1 to around Z$1,400:US$1.
Representatives ofZimbabwe's main export industry, tobacco, says that the
sector needs a rateof at least Z$1,600:US$1, as farmers are getting Z$4m for
every hectare oftobacco they produce--half their production costs. By
October, when the nextcrop is planted, costs will have reached Z$10m a
hectare. Without rapid--andsubstantial--devaluation tobacco production,
already running at one-third ofits peak levels, will fall further from an
estimated 90m kg in 2003 to 60mkg in 2004. All of this is grist to the mill
of the South African and USpresidents, who discussed the Zimbabwe "issue"
early in July. The greaterthe economic pressure on Mugabe, their argument
runs, the easier it will beto get the intransigent 79-year-old to step down
and head off for politicalasylum. However, that assumes a much greater
recognition of economic realityin Harare than is, in fact, the case. Being
in, or close, to government ispaying handsome dividends for a large number
of senior officials in theruling Zanu PF. Corruption and crony capitalism is
serving them very well -why should they want to change a winning streak?

Panicking high ranking
officials of the ruling Zanu PF party are allegedlysystematically stripping
down the country of most of its valuable assets asthey realise that
President Robert Mugabe's reign is coming to an end, itemerged last week.
Economic experts said the entire country was beingmethodically plundered by
high-ranking Zanu PF and government officials whoplan to eventually flee the
country and retire in comfort with theiroffshore holdings. In separate
interviews with Standard Business, governmentcritics said some Members of
Parliament and Cabinet ministers were on amassive looting spree. "Asset
stripping is a process when regimes arepreparing to depart from government.
It is a key aspect of a failedgovernment and is taking place on a day-to-day
basis," said Tendai Biti ofthe Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "It is
a process in which publicassets are transferred to private hands, the
private hands being the verysame cronies that have been controlling the
public sector," charged Biti,the MDC's secretary for economic affairs. The
black Zanu PF cronies havegraduated from petty middle-class businessmen to
real bourgeoisie owners ofthe means of production," he added. He said asset
stripping was taking placein various forms with the government's haphazard
land grab exerciseproviding new scope for the scam.

Biti said
recent reports of Zanu PF officials owning vast tracts of land atthe expense
of the landless was testimony to the asset stripping exercise.He said
certain quarters with government links had muscled in on strategicnational
utilities. "Asset stripping is taking place in many forms. We sawthat with
the land reform programme where we have Zanu PF MPs, governmentministers and
governors owning about seven farms each," Biti said. Biti, theMDC legislator
for Harare East, said another form of asset stripping hademerged in the form
of forced asset transfers, especially those belonging tostate enterprises.
Government ministers and ruling part legislators haverecently acquired
significant stakes in public and private quoted companiesas part of the
government's privatisation process. "There is a strategic anddeliberate
attempt within the ruling elite to amass as much wealth cuttingacross as
many sectors of the economy as possible. They are establishing amonopoly
that guarantees control even in the event that they lose politicalpower,"
said one independent economic commentator.

A civil society
spokesperson said senior Zanu PF officials had already takenpositions in the
ownership of the media, telecommunications, banking, realestate and farming.
"In farming they have literally taken over the entireagro-industry," he
said. "They understand that transition or politicalchange is inevitable so
they want to underwrite and predetermine the courseof that political
change." The spokesperson said civic organisations werecurrently compiling a
dossier of some of the underhand deals and forcedsales of shares to make
reports to Transparency International Zimbabwe(TIZ). TIZ chairman, John
Makumbe, said corrupt Zanu PF officials werefinding safe havens for offshore
banking in neighbouring SADC countries suchas South Africa, Namibia and
Botswana where they have non-resident accounts.Other state assets had
already been sold to Libya and companies such as itsTamoil, a Libyan firm
involved in fuel deals with Zimbabwe. "Nobody actuallyknows what has been
sold to Libya, the number of farms and the percentage ofshares Libya holds
in Zimbabwean firms is a mystery," Makumbe said. Zanu PFrefused to comment
on the allegations levelled against its members. Partysecretary for
information, Nathan Shamuyarira, said he had nothing to say

By Stella
MapenzauswaHARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government
has finallyappealed for food aid to stave off looming starvation among its
people, theUnited Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says.

Zimbabwe
ranks as the worst-hit among six southern African countries thatexperienced
severe food shortages in 2002-03 due to a combination ofdrought, floods and
economic mismanagement.

The
appeal comes about a fortnight after WFP urged the government to
requestdonor aid for some 5.5 million people seen needing emergency food in
thecurrent marketing season.

"We now have the appeal in hand and
certainly it has been a bit of a whilein coming...We are trying to resource
350,000 tonnes on top of thecarry-over that we have of a little over 100,000
tonnes," Farrell said.

The remaining shortfall was to be partly covered
by bilateral donations fromBritain and the U.S.

"In the meantime we
are faced with this immediate problem looming at the endof August, beginning
of September, the real risk that we're going to run outof
supplies.

"We are appealing to donors for pledges to be made soon so that
we canminimise that pipeline break. As the year progresses clearly the
overallfood security...both in the rural and urban areas is getting
moredifficult," Farrell said.

WFP said in June it would take at least
three months after a donor pledgewas made for food to arrive in the
country.

A cause for concern was that the GMB had not indicated whether
it had anyplans to independently import significant quantities of food in
the comingfew months.

"The general situation is more difficult than
last year because of thisunknown quantity, which is how much is going to be
able to come incommercially. It's going to be difficult to fill that deficit
without someinvolvement of the private sector," Farrell said.

The GMB
has a monopoly on all imports and exports of maize and wheat, butFarrell
said Mugabe's government had indicated it would now allow some formof
private sector participation in maize imports to ease shortages.

Political tension between the Zimbabwe
government and theopposition eased this week after reconciliatory gestures
from both sides,but officials said today the parties have not yet resumed
substantive talks.

Zimbabwe is grappling with a deep
political and economic crisisblamed by many on President Robert Mugabe's
government. The crisis hasworsened since Mugabe's controversial re-election
last year in a pollrejected as fraudulent by Morgan Tsvangirai, the
opposition leader.

President Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun
Obasanjo, the NigerianPresident, have been trying to get Mugabe and
Tsvangirai's parties to thenegotiating table to ease apolitical crisis
manifesting itself in oftenviolent electoral contests, isolation by Western
powers and withdrawal ofinternational aid.

In what many
hailed as positive gestures, this week, for thefirst time in three years,
opposition lawmakers did not boycott Mugabe'sspeech on Tuesday marking the
opening of parliament. Even Tsvangirai, who ison trial for allegedly trying
to have Mugabe assassinated, attended thesession.

The
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which holds just overa third of the
150 seats in parliament, said it had decided to attend tocreate an
environment for political dialogue. Mugabe made no mention of
thispossibility in his speech.

Although Mugabe issued his
usual warning to his politicalopponents that anyone who tried to destabilise
his government would face the"full wrath of the law", analysts said by his
fiery standards his speech wasvery restrained.

The
79-year-old former guerrilla leader, who dismissesTsvangirai as a "pathetic
puppet", did not call the opposition any names inthe main speech and in a
subsequent statement at a state banquet forlegislators.

Instead, he said parliament should be treated as an "honourablehouse" for
all political players, and that the MDC MPs' presence during hisaddress
augured well for the country.

The tightly controlled state
broadcaster ZBC has since Tuesdayput a positive spin on what it calls a
"sign of thawing of relations andthat talks are possible". But the chief
spokesperson for Mugabe's ZANU-PFparty said "substantive negotiations" could
only take place when the MDCdrops its legal challenge and recognises
Mugabe's government.

Mugabe's government walked out of
political talks withTsvangirai's MDC in April 2002 after the opposition went
to court tochallenge the election result, saying the South African and
Nigerianmediation efforts must wait until the courts have ruled on the
case.

The election petition has been set for hearing in
November.

The MDC said this week it was working to resume
talks withZANU-PF and that Tsvangirai had strengthened a negotiating team
led byWelshman Ncube, MDC secretary-general, in readiness. - Reuters

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------As
SA showed in its transition, reconciliation and rebuilding require abroader
vision backed by the peopleTHE recent public display of warmth and mutual
support between presidentsGeorge Bush and Thabo Mbeki, although carefully
crafted, indicated theimportance of the need for a stable and constructive
relationship betweenthe US and its key ally in southern Africa.

Even
on the thorniest question of Zimbabwe, the two presidents demonstrateda
public bonhomie. There are three reasons why they would agree that the
USwould follow SA's lead in resolving the Zimbabwe crisis.

First,
although both, in Mbeki's words, were "absolutely of one mind aboutthe
urgent need to address the political and economic challenges ofZimbabwe",
the presidents avoided dwelling on those issues that potentiallydivide SA
and the US.

These include the efficacy (or not) of quiet diplomacy
towards Zimbabwe, andthe war against Iraq. Instead they clearly sought to
stress the many policyareas that unite SA and the US, including combating
the threat of terrorism,and the need to expedite free trade, tackle HIV/AIDS
and support goodgovernance through the New Partnership for Africa's
Development.

Second, the US does not, at least compared to SA, have much
at stake inZimbabwe. Washington is, as Bush put it, willing to support Mbeki
as "thepoint man" and "honest broker" towards SA's troubled
neighbour.

Washington's focus is (unsurprisingly) on the war against
terror and onstabilising the Middle East, as well as forging a modus vivendi
with Mbekion such bigger strategic, global issues.

As a result,
whereas the US has to move toward peace between Israel andPalestine, in
Colin Powell's words, "with great speed and deliberateness",Zimbabwe can be
traded to maintain or improve relations with SA. This isrealpolitik (and
double-standards) par excellence.

Third, both apparently agree that the
crisis has mainly to be solved byZimbabweans themselves, with outside
assistance where necessary. Despiteclaims that progress is being made in
talks between the opposition Movementfor Democratic Change (MDC) and ruling
Zanu (PF) about ways of ending thepolitical crisis, herein lies the
rub.

Judging from SA's experience, four conditions are necessary for
peacefulconflict resolution:

First, there must be external consensus
a united regional and internationalcommunity urging the parties to the
negotiating table and, if necessary,using strong-arm tactics (such as in
SA's transition: restricting ofmilitary support for the African National
Congress (ANC) and the tighteningof sanctions against the apart- heid
regime) to do so. Such consensus doesnot exist over Zimbabwe, with the
southern African region apparently, thoughperhaps decreasingly, at odds on
how to proceed. The European Union anddespite Bush's new rhetoric the US
have until now moved to adopt sanctions,not Africa's "constructive
engagement", as the means of urging politicalchange.

It is not enough
to say Zimbabweans need to sort out their own problemswhile their country
degenerates to the status of a collapsed state. AsKosovo and Rwanda have
shown, it is best to avoid humanitarian catastrophebefore the situation
demands international intervention.

Also, it would have been more useful
if Bush and Mbeki could have agreed ona road map for peace and
reconstruction in Zimbabwe, rather than just vague,uncontroversial yet
meaningless generalities about the need for democracy:after all, would any
international leader oppose the desire for a thrivingdemocracy? The
difficult part, as Bush knows from Iraq, is finding a way toachieve
this.

Instead, by way of example, a first step on such a road map could
have beena calling for a Zimbabwe Peace, Democracy and Reconstruction
Summit. Heldunder the aegis of the African Union (AU) involving the top
leadership ofZanu (PF) and the MDC, and chaired by Mbeki it could outline a
number ofclear deliverables.

These would include fresh elections
under international/regionalsupervision; the restoration of full human and
civil rights; rule of law;security of tenure and so on. There could be
related sets of multiparty andcivil society conferences built into this
approach, interventions fullybacked by the AU and the donor
community.

Second, there is a need for internal consensus in terms of
agreeing on theimperative for negotiations that there is more, put simply,
to be gainedfrom compromise than from a continued standoff. This is not so
in Zimbabwe,where to date there exists at best only a process about
negotiations ratherthan a negotiation process.

Hence opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai's angry retort to Mbeki's claimthat "Zanu (PF) and
the MDC are, indeed, discussing". The MDC leader saidsuch "false and
mischievous" statements were only buying time for PresidentRobert Mugabe
since "there has been absolutely no political engagement"between the two
protagonists since April last year.

Tsvangirai's rebuke is excusable only
given the extreme levels of stateviolence and intimidation meted out to his
supporters. His frustration mayalso be a function of attempts to bypass him
in the negotiations, confirmedby faceless "senior diplomatic sources" from
SA, in spite of his status asofficial leader of the opposition and the man,
at least judging from thelast election, that many (if not the majority of)
Zimbabweans would like tohave as their president.

Just as a
suspension of the armed struggle by the ANC and the release ofpolitical
prisoners by the National Party government were crucial to thesuccessful
commencement of a negotiation process in SA, it is unrealistic toexpect the
MDC to commit to formal, open talks with or without Tsvangiraiwithout the
normalisation of domestic political activity.

Third, there has to be
clear method, timeframes and signposts on the road topolitical transition.
Yet currently southern African shuttlediplomacy withHarare does not amount
to more than diplomatic grandstanding, notably byMugabe.

Finally, the
need for established method demands prescient, generousleadership, notably
in terms of devising strategies to strengthen youropposition to enable them
to deliver their constituency.

Mugabe has preferred, however, to weaken
the MDC by violence and tie it downin various judicial processes including
the Tsvangirai treason trial, to thepoint that there is both little trust
and goodwill, so that aims andstrategies can only become
radicalised.

Far from possessing leaders with vision such as Nelson
Mandela, FW de Klerkand Mbeki, Zimbabwe is especially blighted with those
who see negotiationsas a zero-sum game.

The success of SA's
transition illustrates pivotally that no progress can bemade without the
support of the majority of citizens.

Crucially, no amount of diplomatic
eggshell dancing can ultimately avoidasking the same question of Zimbabweans
themselves, whatever regional orinternational leaders may
think.

Mills and Hughes are respectively the national director and
parliamentaryresearch fellow of the SA Institute of International
Affairs.

Activists feel the legislation will be used to further impede
theirwork

JOHANNESBURG, - Civil rights groups in Zimbabwe are
concerned thattheir operations could be further curtailed following reports
that thegovernment is to amend legislation governing NGOs.

"In
order to ensure that the operations of Non-GovernmentalOrganisations are
consistent with, and supportive of, government policiesand programmes, the
Non-Governmental Organisations Bill will amend thecurrent act and broaden
the definition of NGOs to include trusts," the localDaily News reported
President Robert Mugabe as saying at the opening ofparliament this
week.

Rights activists and NGOs allege that the legislation is the
latestattempt by the government to crack down on dissent in the country.
Over thepast two years the government and rights organisations have been
atloggerheads, with the authorities accusing NGOs of furthering
foreigninterests.

"We are not shocked by the news and, in fact,
this has been on thecards since the early 1990s. However, this is the first
time that it lookslike the legislation may actually come before parliament.
This signals tocivil society that the government is running scared, afraid
of criticism.Our major concern is that our work, especially in rural areas,
will befurther impeded. Already members of civil rights groups cannot go
intocertain areas to conduct interviews regarding human rights
violations,"Crisis in Zimbabwe spokeswoman Everjoice Win told
IRIN.

Last year NGOs resisted a government order to register under
thePrivate Voluntary Organisations Act, saying they were operating as
trustsand were, therefore, not governed by the legislation.

"If
the bill is approved by parliament, the government will haveunfettered
access to the operations of NGOs. Authorities will have the rightto
investigate who our funders are and, if they choose, may even deregistersome
of the groups," Win said.

But, one analyst told IRIN, if the move
was indeed an attempt tomuzzle opposition, the government may find itself
faced with several legalchallenges.

"It is really an exercise
in futility since there are several groupsregistered as trusts and as
private companies. Existing legislationprohibits any government
interference," senior political science lecturer atthe University of
Zimbabwe John Makumbe said.

Meanwhile, the government also
announced plans to introducelegislation giving workers part-ownership in
local industries as part of ablack empowerment drive. But critics say the
initiative was politicallymotivated and aimed to convince domestic investors
to remain in Zimbabwe.

It is estimated that foreign investors
pulled out Zim $17.3 billion(US $20 million) from the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE) in the first sixmonths of this year, more than five times the
amount of funds withdrawn byforeign businesses last year.

"The
promise of greater shares in the economy is directed at those whoalready
have money. So, black economic empowerment will not make anysignificant
difference, especially since the economy is in free-fall,"Makumbe
said.

"And then suddenly there was no more free
and virgin land to destroy.That's all there was; there wasn't any more. And
slowly, imperceptibly, thefact of that disaster began to make itself felt in
the economy of a wholegreat nation. The shortage began to make itself felt
in a living standardslipping slowly downward....

People didn't know
about what was going on. Neither farmers nor citypeople. I knew perhaps
better than most because I had seen over the wholeof the world what had
happened to nations when their agriculture grew sickand their soil
impoverished. What happened was first ECONOMIC SICKNESS andfinally DEATH,
not only of agriculture but eventually of the nation and
itsCIVILIZATION.

I knew in my heart that we as a nation were already
much farther along thepath to DESTRUCTION than most people knew. What we
needed was a new kind ofpioneer, not the sort which cut down the forests and
burned off theprairies and raped the land, but who created forests and
healed andrestored the richness of the country God have given
us......."- Louis Bromfield - Pleasant Valley - 1946 -

The current
state of affairs appear to have happened before. "The morethings change the
more things stay the same?"

The effects of the use of this POLITICAL
WEAPON are likely to have the sameeffect that Bromfield has
related.

The issue of compensation/restitution to farmers
for what they have lost asa result of the fast track resettlement programme
is very clear. The farmerhas the right to claim according to the law of
Zimbabwe and Internationallaw.

Before farmers can initiate this
process there are certain responsibilitiesthat they have to be aware of and
conform to.

· Farmers can only be compensated or restituted if they
submit a claim forwhat they have lost.

· Certain formats and
procedures exist that have to be followed in order todocument and present
the facts.

· The Valuation Certificate from the Valuators Consortium is
vital and willform part of the final document and could represent
approximately 40% ofthe total amount claimable by farmers in that other
disturbance losses(consequential losses) could constitute the greater part
of the claim.

To assist farmers to fill in their claims in the prescribed
format we havetrained 18 facilitators around the country. They started
facilitating andcompiling documents on the 1st July 2003.

All farmers
are urged to have their documentation completed by the end ofNovember 2003.
This will assist us in processing the information and inpreparation of the
initial steps in the International arena by the 1stFebruary 2004.

The
sooner negotiations take place the sooner compensation/restitutioncould be
achieved. The first phase of this is the correct documentation oflosses and
claims and their quantification and verification.

If farmers have no facilitators in their areas;
we will be hosting our nexttraining course at St Lucia Park in Harare on the
30th July 2003. It willbe a one-day course and lunch and teas are
included.

This whole exercise depends on the co-operation and
determination offarmers and must be community driven. Your community must
select thefacilitators they can work with and have confidence and trust in.
Thiswill ensure that the interests of farmers are presented in a
professionalformat and with the necessary confidentiality.

For more
details on the course please contact me at 011 207 860 or the
JAGoffice.

1 I presume letter number 1 of Open Letter Forum 119
was written by BenFreeth? Should I be concerned that he would not put his
name to this letteror was it an oversight?

2 Thank you for the
opportunity to allow open debate on the issue of CFUwithout bias or
prejudice. I think it has allowed a second opinion toappear. And what a
wonderful surprise to see that Willy actually believesthat some good men
stand for CFU!!

3 I was always really concerned about the voting
procedure and form thatthe "new" CFU took with their last restructuring.
Like the changes thattook place in the national constitution from 1986 to
1992, I believed thatwe were putting too much power into the hands of a few
men. But in exactlythe same way as the EGM in March 2003 for ZTA, I watched
a whole generationof farmers vote unanimously for the changes, just
accepting what theirleadership was asking for. And so today, we all live
with the changes thatwere made....

or do we??

That is the
challenge that we as future farmers should be looking at. Isthe current
constitution right for us? Should we be accepting the StatusQuo? Should we
not be making the changes necessary to ensure the survivalof our farmers and
their children??

I am pleased to hear that you are now gently
amused.Regrettably I am no longer in that category.

I have been
informed that Vice President Crawford has now asked Mr. Cloeteto stand again
as President - I know not why as yet.

Yesterday I sought spiritual
guidance and was advised by a priest that theCFU is an Evil Organization and
that I would never achieve anything bytrying to alter its ways, from now on.
I did try many more than threetimes, as have many others and now will take
spiritual guidance in favourof your challenge, and will now move
on.

The importance of doing things in
black and white cannot be over-emphasisedenough. What is in black and white
will stand over time where mere words(dialogue?) will not.

· When I
pay my bills I produce a cheque book (black and white) and receivea receipt
(black and white).

· When I rent a house I sign a lease agreement (black
and white).

· When I travel across the border I produce a passport (black
and white).

· When I buy a car I get a registration book to show
ownership (black andwhite).

· When I vote for responsible Government
I place my cross in the right box(black and white).

· When I buy a
farm I get title deeds to prove it is mine (black andwhite).

· When I
borrow money I produce my collateral (black and white).

When my legal
rights are usurped or my property is stolen and I lose whatis mine, my fall
back is the courts so that I can pay my bills, stay in myhome, get insurance
money for my car, travel out of the country, regain myfarm or develop it
through the bank (black and white). There will be those(in the ?????) who
will do everything they can to persuade me not to goblack and white because
they know the power of black and white.

If I do not carefully document
all my losses and the incidents where mylegal rights have been usurped
before asserting them I will have no chanceof recouping those losses so that
my rights can triumph over the wrongs.If I do not assert those rights, quite
frankly I do not deserve to keepthem.

SUPER Patriots And Morons, a play about His Excellency, the
Super Patriot,who has ruled his small African nation as a dictator since it
attainedindependence from the colonialists will be shown in 10 provinces
inZimbabwe.

The play will kick off tomorrow in all the provinces.
Each province has itsown cast and for the past 16 days Rooftop Promotions
has been conductingrehearsals for the actors and
actresses.

Also in attendance and helping with the rehearsals
were seasoned actorsO'Brian Mudyiwenyama, Jasen Mphepho, Mackay Tickeys and
Daves Guzha.

Super Patriots And Morons will also be staged in Harare at
the Mannenberg on29 July.

His Excellency, the Super Patriot, has
ruled his small African nation withan iron hand and has successfully muzzled
the Press, cowed the judiciary,and is intolerant of the opposition that he
sees as a front of theneo-imperialists.

All this, in the determined
pursuit of perpetuating his personal rule. Thecountry is his, in the true
sense of the word.

When this crumbles, bastardising the country's
socio-economic fabric, theSuper Patriot's world starts giving in, thus
triggering a series of logicalquestions from the populace.

Led by a
pregnant woman Shami, the people, who see the Super Patriot as thesource of
their pathetic predicament resolve to take the Dear Leader
headon.

The ground is set for a dramatic confrontation. The Super
Patriot with everystate machinery at his disposal to defend his personal
rule, and the peoplewith nothing to lose but their misery.

It is a
case of the people versus the powerful Great Leader.

What is at stake is
their respective existence. Both sides have no room forcompromise in this
battle for the ultimate survival. He who wins lives.

Produced by Daves
Guzha and directed by Calle Kjellgren, the play which willtake place in
Harare features Daves Guzha, Mackay Tickeys, O'BrianMudyiwenyama, Jasen
Mpepho and Eyahra Mathazia.